


Kiba's Pack

by Foodmoon



Series: Sakura, Empath [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, Tsume's pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 14:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foodmoon/pseuds/Foodmoon
Summary: Tsume is interested when her son comes home with extras.





	Kiba's Pack

Tsume raises a brow as her son approaches with uncharacteristic hesitance, before lifting his chin stubbornly. Her little pup, growing up so fast.

“Ma, this is my pack.”

Her eyes rove over the gaggle of kids trailing behind him. The Ino-Shika-Cho clan heirs. Shikamaru Nara looking less bored than normal; Chouji Akamichi next to him, munching as usual. The former Hyuuga heiress. She’d thought the girl too cowardly to venture stepping on clan lands before her marriage to Kiba in the future. The Aburame heir. Hadn’t his adoptive brother gone missing?  The Haruno heiress, though the Harunos are more a small family than a clan. It would be interesting to see if the girl got further than her genin father had as a ninja. The jinchuuriki, heir to the Uzumaki clan and informally heir to the Namikaze family, possibly the last surviving member of both. His posture is hesitant, as if afraid of her reaction. The heir of the once-powerful Uchiha clan, looking like he absolutely doesn’t know why he’s here, sandwiched between Ino and Shino.

An interesting and eclectic bunch. Not a civilian among them. Potentially a very _powerful_ pack. And she can see in their body language the nascent bonds already forming among them. The look that says ‘if you insult my friend, you’ll be facing _my_ wrath’. Unusual for a bunch of pre-genin to put aside differences to work together without being forced to. _She approves._

She grins broadly at the brats. “Of course your pack is always welcome here.” Then she pauses, remembering that the Uzumaki brat has a reputation for pranks. “No pranks on clan lands. Nin-dogs don’t care much for loud noises or being startled, and they’re _good_ at revenge.”

The sulky look on Ino’s face makes her very glad she thought to make the stipulation. She should have known. Beneath their calm, cool and collected personalities, Yamanakas are a bit of rabble rousers. And Inoichi’s brat is spoiled enough that she uses her brattiness to throw people off of the fact that she’s scarily observant.

The jinchuuriki brat, on the other hand, looks uncertain still. The others stream past her to go inside, but he hesitates and the Haruno girl stays with him, eyeing him worriedly. What is his name again? She’s pretty sure Minato and Kushina had come up with some unspeakable name that Tsume had done her level best to forget within seconds of hearing it.

“Um. Is it okay that I’m here?” he asks nervously.

Tsume’s eyes narrow and she snags him by the front of his collar and lifts him to eye height to study him better. His body language screams that he’s caught between terror and manners, not sure if he should struggle or not.

The Haruno girl puts a hand on his back and glares at Tsume. “What are you doing to Naruto?”

She raises a mental brow as she notices out of the corner of her eye that the rest of the pack pauses at that question, then not-so-subtly move back towards them, postures ranging from protective to aloof. Tsume shakes her head. “Your dad had terrible naming sense.”

The blue eyes widen. “My dad?”

“Sure, kid. You look kind of like him. Did you know your mom was from Uzushiokagure?”

He just looks confused. “Where’s that?”

“What do they teach kids these days in school? Uzushio was Konoha’s greatest ally until someone snuck around and decimated the place before Konoha could get there to help. Look it up some time.” She drops him, pleased when he lands on his feet without stumbling. “You like dogs?”

His eyes light up. “Believe it! Akamaru is cool!”

Unable to stop herself, she ruffles his blond hair. “Kiba! Show your pack the puppies, okay?”

“Kiba, your mom is awesome! Believe it!” Naruto shouts and practically bounces towards her son, who is staring at her in shock. Understandable, really. It’s a very rare occasion when anyone outside the clan is allowed to see the vulnerable ninken pups before they find partners within the clan. But pack is pack, and if anyone needs to be treated as clan, it’s Naruto and the rest of Kiba’s pack. None of these kids are stupid enough to try harming a ninken or stealing one. Besides, she could get used to being called awesome with that amount of enthusiasm.

“Thank you.”

Her gaze snaps back to the pink haired Haruno girl at the quiet words. “What for?”

“Most of the adults act like they want him to die. And he- He just loves everyone anyway. So thank you for treating him like a normal kid.”

Tsume’s brain stalls briefly. What? But that can wait. Because what she sees in front of her is a young woman with enough strength in her eyes to be an Inuzuka by birth, and _that_ is noteworthy. She crouches down and gives the girl a good once-over before meeting her green eyes.

“I can’t teach you clan techniques, but I can give you some basic exercises to build your strength. You’re going to need it with this pack.” The green eyes widen. “I can’t believe his parents named him ‘fishcake’, those idiots. So tell me. Why does he wear that hideous orange thing?”

The Haruno girl grimaces. “He likes orange. A lot. And he likes to stand out, because he wants people to like him. Also, I’m not sure if the shops will sell him anything decent quality, other than the store that gives him a discount on those because no one else in their right mind would wear that color. No one _refuses_ him service outright, but some of them are so hostile even he doesn’t go near them. And they might… Uh.”

Tsume growls. “Hike the prices on him at the checkout. Civilians! It’s not the brat’s fault that his parents died. If anything, they should be treating him like a hero. Can’t talk about that with you kids, though, or I’d tell you all about it. Well, leave the clothing talks to me. We can’t have him going around like a color blind civilian with the fashion sense of Gai Maito. It’s insulting to my eyes.”

The girl giggles in agreement, and Tsume messes up her long, pink hair.

“You going to be a medical nin like my Hana? If not, you might want to cut this mop. It can be a hazard in battle. But right now you’d better hurry so you can see the pups. Off you go.”

“Yes, Inuzuka-san.”

She watches her run off, then calls after her, “Call me Tsume!”

“Yes, Tsume-san! I’m Sakura!” the girl calls back over her shoulder.

Huh. Nice loud voice. Wouldn’t think it when she’s being all polite. Good for her. No ordinary kid is going to be able to keep up with the rest of Kiba’s pack for long, so it’s good she’s definitely not ordinary. Tsume _approves_. It’s rare a pack like this forms. Rare and precious.

**Author's Note:**

> Tsume has definite plans to show Naruto pictures of outfits in relation to Uzumaki fashions and various ninjas he's likely to idolize at his age, and get him all excited about it before baiting him into choosing a new 'cooler' style. She knows all about rowdy, impulsive boys; she's got one of her own, after all.
> 
> I conceptualize Inuzuka ninken as basically equivalents to summons dogs, but originating from areas that are less chakra-dense and thus can live and reproduce alongside the Inuzuka clan without a contract or needing their partners' chakra to come to areas away from their home. As such, it takes them a long time to actually learn to speak human language aloud properly. Whereas summons have both more chakra to utilize in this endeavor and the actual contract to help it along. _(Basically, cannon is vague as shit, and since the Sannin's great summons apparently originate from 'sage areas' that exist alongside of less chakra-dense areas, I figured it made sense more or less to do it this way.)_
> 
> I've read very few fics where Kiba's mom got any screen time, so as such, conceptualizing her character was... well, difficult, because I had to figure out her likely reactions to so many people right off the bat without much writing time to get the feel for her or much of anything from others to work off of.


End file.
